1. Field
One embodiment of the invention relates to an information processing apparatus and a fault symptom determination method which is applied to this apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, in an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer, a hard disk drive is used as a storage device. The hard disk drive is a magnetic disk apparatus in which data is stored on a disk storage medium which is called a hard disk.
In usual cases, the hard disk drive (HDD) has a function called S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring Analysis And Reporting Technology). Values (S.M.A.R.T. information), which correspond to various test items of the HDD and are obtained by this function, are stored in the disk storage medium. The S.M.A.R.T. information can be used for predicting a fault of the HDD.
Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 9-282603 discloses a magnetic disk apparatus having a function of predicting the occurrence of a fault. In this magnetic disk apparatus, various events, which are objects of monitoring and may relate to a fault of the magnetic disk apparatus, are monitored. When a certain event that is to be monitored has occurred, the monitor value corresponding to this to-be-monitored event is incremented. The incremented monitor value is stored in a system area on the disk storage medium.
In the meantime, most of information processing apparatuses, such as personal computers, include not only the HDD, but also an optical disc drive (ODD). The ODD is a drive which drives optical disc media which are removable media. The optical disc media are used not only as storage media for installing various software (e.g., an operating system, an application program) in a personal computer, but also as storage media for backing up data. Thus, in case a fault has occurred in the ODD, the function of the personal computer is considerably restricted as in the case of a fault occurring in the HDD.
However, the ODD includes neither storage media, which can permanently store data, in the drive thereof, nor a self-test function such as a S.M.A.R.T. function. Thus, under the present circumstances, a fault of the ODD is not practically predicted.
In order to enhance the reliability of the personal computer, it is necessary, therefore, to realize a new scheme for obtaining information that is necessary for predicting a fault in the ODD.